When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.

-- St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto

The family is the most ancient institution which God founded in Paradise, when He called the first pair of human beings into existence. The first blessing which God gave was for the wellbeing of the family. With family life, the history of the world commences.

-- St. John Vianney

Our Lord knew that to draw strength and efficacy from fasting, something more than abstinence from prohibited food is necessary. Thus He instructed His disciples and, consequently, disposed them to gather the fruits proper to fasting. Among many others are these four: fasting fortifies the spirit, mortifying the flesh and its sensuality; it raises the spirit to God; it fights concupiscence and gives power to conquer and deaden its passions; in short, it disposes the heart to seek to please only God with great purity of heart.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul.

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Laetáre, Jerúsalem: et convéntum fácite, omnes qui dilígites eam: gaudéte cum laetítia, qui in tristítia fuístis: ut exsultétis, et satiémini ab ubéribus consolatiónis vestrae. Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.

-- Introit, Laetáre Sunday, St. Andrew's Missal, 1945

Irrational feeding darkens the soul and makes it unfit for spiritual experiences.

-- St. Thomas Aquinas

As iron is fashioned by fire and on the anvil, so in the fire of suffering and under the weight of trials, our souls receive that form which our Lord desires them to have.

-- St. Madeline Sophie Barat